paintwithwords:

thesexuneducated:

thedailywhat:

Controversial Pool Policy of the Day: Breast cancer survivor Jodi Jaecks underwent a bilateral mastectomy in 2011. She opted not to have reconstructive surgery, and the procedure left her with two thin scars that cut across her chest where her nipples once lay.

Jaecks now suffers from a common side effect of mastectomies – nerve pain across her chest and neck:

It burns all the time — a pretty searing, intense pain.

As such, she has no interest in wearing post-mastectomy swimsuits, and besides, she really has nothing left to cover up. So she petitioned Seattle Parks and Recreation to allow her to swim topless in the district’s 10 public pools. (Video in link Sorta Not Safe For Work — Jaecks is pictured topless.)

But the district pushed back, telling Jaecks she wouldn’t be welcome unless she wore “gender-appropriate swimwear.”

“She made it clear she wanted to show her scars as a ‘badge of courage’ and wanted to use the pool to spread her message,” says parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter.

After the story broke Tuesday, Seattle Parks and Rec caved to public pressure and overturned the policy — but for Jaecks only.

Naturally, the meager concession prompted further backlash, and now it looks like Jaecks may win the battle and the war. The district has announced it will considerreversing its policy for everyone.

[theslog]

As it should. This begs us to question, as so many things do, what constitutes of gender anyway? I will never forget when I first moved to the States. In England and in Europe young girls* only wear bikini bottoms. Their breasts haven’t developed, so there is no need to cover up their chest. Naturally, we continued this philosophy when we moved to California. One day my mother and I were at the beach and she walked me to the bathroom. As we were walking in, another little girl and her mother were walking out. She was wearing a sparkly lime green two piece bathing suit with matching scrunchies in her hair. She looked at me with disdain and asked her mother, loudly, “is she a girl or a boy?”. Her words sliced through me - not because I cared whether she misgendered me but because my bare, not-yet-developed chest was somehow grotesque. That little girl had no idea what to think of me. Was I girl or was I boy? The simple pieces of triangular fabric that would have covered up my nipples seemed to be more important to my identity that my actual identity. It wasn’t long before I had to give in to this new cultural norm - not because I wanted to but because it seemed to make everyone else more comfortable around me.

Although this story is different than experiencing a bilateral mastectomy, the underlying theme is the same. Why should this woman have to cover up her chest? No one else gets to define her gender and the fact that she no longer has breasts certainly doesn’t either. She shouldn’t have to wear a pointless bikini top if she doesn’t want to and nor should she be policed because she is proud of her survival as a human being. I am glad they are going to open this policy up to everyone because its not about what makes other people feel comfortable. Its about people like Jaecks being able to be comfortable too. 

a lot of thoughts about this..

(Source: thedailywhat)